The ash cloud that disrupted European air traffic - (Xinhua Reuters photo)

The recent worldwide travel chaos that resulted from the volcanic eruption in Iceland emphasizes just how fragile our technology hold over the forces of nature really are.

The amazing thing about this is that Iceland is fairly remote from most of the European airspace that was closed down for many long days.

It seems that the prevailing winds were at the time traveling in an unusual direction, and this resulted in the ash cloud’s spread over much of northern Europe, and in fact across well into Russia as well.

I seem to remember that this particular volcano’s last eruption was recorded from 1821 to 1823, with substantial explosive eruptions (similar to this year’s activities) happening between late June and Early August in 1823. Had such a string of eruptions occurred this month, then the skies may have been closed off to aircraft for 6 weeks or so.

It is perhaps a good thing that we didn’t have Jumbo Jets and other similar flying objects around in those days!

The result of an event resulting from “natural causes” cost many billions of dollars to the travel sector as well as resulting in massive disruption to the travel plans of many travelers.

Of course the other side issue of all of this that escapes attention in that of freight transport. Many businesses (particularly those with contracts to supply highly perishable goods like fresh seafood and cut flowers) suffered very heavy losses as a result of being unable to deliver their produce.

The flight disruption was also a timely reminder to all of us who travel to carefully read the wording on our travel insurance policy. Many of the people who were caught out this time found out (too late) that their policies had exclusions which prevented them from making a claim.

The other aspect of this event is that the “blame game” has now begun. Passengers are complaining that their airline held up flights for longer than some others. In turn, airlines are tending to say that the national air travel regulators in many countries closed off their airspace too early and were overly cautious in the time that the airspace was re-opened. In their defence, regulators have claimed that the advice that they received from vulcanologists and meteorological bureax were not sufficiently detailed and accurate.

We can be sure that this is now an issue that has managed to come to the front of the queue for issues that need some better organized process of measurements and decision making, so that dangerous situations are avoided, whilst nevertheless reducing the level of disruption to an absolute minimum.

There will definitely be more to come on this issue. Stay tuned!

John Kumm, Author

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